


Strength

by Cleo the Muse (cleothemuse)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Not an unhappy ending I swear, Past Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 02:23:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18356666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleothemuse/pseuds/Cleo%20the%20Muse
Summary: Thanos has won. AGAIN.Endgame what-if; no spoilers. Not betaed: we die like fierce women.





	Strength

They were screwed.

Taking on Thanos a second time hadn’t worked out any better than it did the first time, and after leveling the Avengers handily, the giant purple scrotum began _toying_ with them, activating one gem in his gauntlet at a time for each Avenger, designing torments _especially_ for them.

Nebula was first, as Thanos had a particular vindictive streak toward the woman he claimed as a daughter: the Time stone turned back the clock so that she was a wailing blue child with a crown of wispy purple hair.

Rocket was next: the Reality stone transformed him into a chittering, terrified raccoon of the Earthly variety.

And on it went: the Mind stone had Romanoff and Okoye reacting in horror to things that weren’t there, the Space stone hurled Thor and Danvers into a black hole, the Soul gem left Barton a dead-eyed husk and split Bruce and the Hulk into two separate beings before the Power stone squashed the Hulk into a bloody mass.

Similarly, Rhodey, Tony, and Lang had their suits torn from their bodies and crushed, then reassembled into shackles around their chests—pinning their arms—and around their ankles—not that Rhodey could walk without an exosuit anyway.

Rogers… Steve…

Steve was in the center of a raised platform which had once held the Titan’s phallic-substitute of a throne, and he kept trying to get his feet under him despite being knocked down with a wave of Thanos’ hand every time he tried to rise.

“...And what for the leader, hmm?” Thanos mused aloud, a twisted smile on his face as he paced clockwise around the captain. “A brother for Nebula, perhaps? You certainly showed enough spirit the first time we met.” He stopped, looked down at Steve, then shook his head.

“I could send you back in time—yes, I know about your history. I could give you a gift: the life you should have with the woman you loved? Or perhaps I’ll bring her forward: a consolation prize, if you will.”

“Leave… Peggy… out of… this,” Steve grunted, struggling to his knees again. Tony winced, knowing what was about to happen.

Thanos made a dismissive gesture, flattening the soldier again. He then pivoted and resumed pacing, now circling counter-clockwise. “Simply crushing you would be… unsatisfying, as would sending you away to join those other fools. But destroying your spirit…” He stopped, looked down again, and his cracked smile widened. “Now _that_ might be worthwhile.”

“You son of a bitch,” Tony swore, struggling against his restraints again.

“Oh, but I don’t think I need the _Soul_ gem to do that,” Thanos continued, turning away from Steve to sneer down at the broken Avengers below the dais. “I could destroy your friends in front of you—your whole pathetic _world_ —one person at a time until you had absolutely _nothing_ left to fight for.”

“I would still… fight _you_ ,” Steve gasped, pushing his way to his knees again, swaying for a moment before steadying himself with the half of his shield that still remained on his arm. “As long as… I still had… the strength.”

Thanos turned back to Steve again, and Tony mentally braced himself for the invisible blow. “Strength?” the Titan scoffed, but then the terrible smile returned. “Strength. Yes.” He raised his gauntlet-covered fist and the Reality stone began to glow. A malevolent cloud of deep reds and blacks formed, completely enveloping the captain, and Tony knew he wasn’t the only one who cried out in alarm.

The smoke cleared just as abruptly as it had formed, leaving behind a figure so small, Tony at first thought Thanos had used the Time stone after all. But then, after a moment, he realized the slim figure drowning in Captain America’s dirty uniform was Steve as he had been before the serum: bird-boned and asthmatically wheezing, and now leaning heavily on the shield fragment to keep from crumpling to the ground.

“So much for your ‘strength’,” Thanos chuckled cruelly, and floated off of the raised platform onto the same level as the three pinned humans. “As for _you_ three… You are useless without your ‘toys’.”

“I could say the same about you,” Lang challenged, putting on a brave face. “Why don’t you take off that gauntlet and see how useless _you_ are.”

The Titan grinned. “Even without it, I could squash you like the insect you pretend to be.”

Tony saw movement and swallowed hard. “Oh, yeah? How about a battle of wits, then? Or a rap battle—Rhodey does a great rap battle.”

“I do not do a—” Rhodey began, then trailed off, apparently catching on to Tony’s desperate gambit. “Okay, yeah I actually am pretty damn awesome at it.”

“I know magic tricks,” Lang piped up. “Like close-up stuff, the kind of thing you see at kids’ parties, not Vegas or anything. Picked it up while I was on house arrest! Did this thing with cards that absolutely _blew_ Agent Woo’s mind, it was so great.”

Tony nodded vigorously. “Could you show me some time? There was this guy in Malibu: did this awesome cabaret act at my favorite club, and I always wanted to know how he did everything.”

“Oh, yeah, I’d be glad to!” Lang replied, a little too enthusiastically. “But, uh, you gotta show me how to… uh…”

“Play craps!” Rhodey filled in quickly. “Just don’t let him do that stupid thing where he makes you blow on his dice; it’s weird.”

“It’s not weird.”

“It is _so_ weird.”

“ _SILENCE!_ ” the purple giant roared, clenching his fist and causing the destroyed armors to tighten around the Avengers’ bodies, squeezing the breath from them. “You are nothing more than squabbling children, and you _bore_ me with your self-interests and ignorance.”

“Ig…norance?” Tony wheezed. “But we... know… something… you don’t.”

“And what’s that?” Thanos demanded just before his head was removed from his shoulders.

The armor bindings crumbled into scrap without the Titan’s will holding them in place. Tony stumbled over to the severed head on the ground and knelt down so he could look the monster in the eyes and be certain he was dead.

He then looked over at Steve, who had passed out after hitting the ground. Leaping off the dais had taken everything he had, but even unconscious, his hands still clenched his shield, its razor-sharp broken edge now glistening with Thanos’ blood.

“Steve Rogers’ strength doesn’t come from the serum,” Tony informed Thanos’ corpse.

**Author's Note:**

> Working title was "You Caught Me Monologuing!"


End file.
